This thesis addresses academic writing using two practice-led disciplines, academic literacies and ethnomethodology. It is first concerned to evaluate the possibilities of cooperation between these cognate endeavours, and concludes that where academic literacies provides a locus and set of topics for academic writing studies, ethnomethodology can contribute a sharpening of focus and of analytic tools. Ethnomethodology provides a reassuring message in that it confirms the value of detailed local studies, in this case of literacy. However, it is also the source of critique for those literacy scholars who have tried to site their studies in dualisms. This is seen as a rejection of situated studies. There is therefore a prominent methodological focus in this thesis. These methodological issues are then discussed in regard to how they translate into agendas and technologies for the study of social literacies. It is shown that ethnographic-type methods are necessary for such studies, even where they do not qualify as ‘full’ ethnographies by traditional standards. This study itself took on a quasi-ethnographic or ethnographic-type approach, using a longitudinal method to track the academic writing practices of eight undergraduate students with the aim of ascertaining the social and collaborative ways in which their work is accorded plausibility. Material from the study is presented in the form of interview analysis, and in a series of ethnographic case studies that use a variety of material, including interviews with students and staff, student essays, and various other materials that were accrued throughout the administrative life of the essays. Various methods for achieving or according plausibility, on the part of both students and staff, are discussed and analysed. Although all protagonists involved in essay writing and marking looked for and dealt in conventions wherever possible, the material presented here demonstrates that participants were generally aware of the limits to the possibilities of phenomena, and that there may be cause to locate, challenge, change, and adapt to the things that can acceptably be said and done in essay writing.

Within postgraduate studies, learning is assessed through the examination of modules making up a taught programme and the writing of a dissertation. However, research, nationally and internationally, has shown that although students are generally able to complete the modules making up a postgraduate programme successfully, often difficulty arises in the writing of the dissertation which begins with the conceptualising and writing of the research proposal. It seems that students are considered poorly equipped for postgraduate study, which puts their academic success and completion of their studies in jeopardy, particularly those for whom English is not a first language. Since 1994 with wider access to higher education, a concern has arisen about National figures for postgraduate throughput rates, which on average, are quite low. This current research originated with concern about the unpreparedness of some postgraduate students in a specific master‟s programme in a Faculty of Education at a South African university and about offering them the foundations for the development of their academic research writing, an aspect so vital to achieve success at this level. It seems that programmes which incorporate academic writing are put into place in some honours programmes (see Henning, Gravett & van Rensburg, 2005; Thomson, 2008 for South African programmes) but once the student progresses to master‟s or doctoral level, this does not seem to be the case. The main aim of this study was to obtain insight and understanding of the demands of academic writing at postgraduate level and to develop an effective intervention to assist in the development of proficient academic research writing. Thus, the development of an academic research writing intervention deemed most appropriate for postgraduates in education was designed and developed to assist students during the first stages of their research, that of conceptualising, writing and successfully defending the research proposal. The premise is that during this first year of study, acquiring and developing academic literacies, in order to become competent academic writers would provide the scaffolding1 for the move into the second phase of the research process, that of academic research writing. Design Research was considered most appropriate for this research as it is interventionist, iterative, process-focused, utility-oriented and theory-driven (Van den Akker, Gravemeijer, McKinney & Nieveen, 2006, p.5) and in addition, requires the involvement of practitioners (Plomp, 2013, p. 20). The sample for this study was drawn from a specific master‟s programme in education and consisted of students, the supervision team and the academic research writing practitioner. A mixed methods approach was used where data comprised quantitative data (questionnaire, evaluations and assessments) and qualitative data (personal writing, evaluative writing, interviews and assessments). Findings emerging from the context of this particular master‟s programme point to a set of design principles that inform the development of a model for academic research writing which appears promising for supporting the postgraduate student effectively. It is hoped that the findings emerging from the research will fill a gap in the literature and add to the body of knowledge on postgraduate academic research writing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / PhD / Unrestricted

International Masters students face daunting challenges in adjusting to a startlingly different UK academic discourse within a short time. Little research has been conducted into these challenges and successful transition strategies. A review of learning development literature identified a set of three models, which has not been related theoretically to international Masters students. The latest, critical model, Academic Literacies, especially offers important insights into these students’ difficulties and potential for integration. This research design explored these learning journeys in depth through interviews in a longitudinal study of MBA and MSc students during the 2009-10 academic year. The rich data were investigated through the qualitative methodology of narrative analysis, with twin aims of recognising similarities but also important differences across the students’ learning experiences. A majority experienced strongly emotional learning journeys. These followed an affective pattern with a downturn early in the academic year influenced by the degree of unfamiliarity in the new culture and academic discourse, mirrored by a corresponding improvement in emotional state during Semester 2 or 3 as these external issues became more familiar and comfortable. Self-efficacy emerged as an especially important factor in achieving academic success, and students’ progression was mapped against this variable using an established, U-shaped transition curve model. The study identifies practical learning development interventions, but also highlights the importance of educational practitioners becoming pedagogically self-reflective to empathise more genuinely with international students’ struggles, and to learn from their diverse experiences in ways that can enrich the process of internationalising western education.

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Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-08-02T18:29:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 laurasilveirabotelho.pdf: 3022171 bytes, checksum: e8758ef380a8d3b6054817879fc08e37 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Diamantino Mayra (mayra.diamantino@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-08-04T11:10:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 laurasilveirabotelho.pdf: 3022171 bytes, checksum: e8758ef380a8d3b6054817879fc08e37 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-04T11:10:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 laurasilveirabotelho.pdf: 3022171 bytes, checksum: e8758ef380a8d3b6054817879fc08e37 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-01 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Com o crescente aumento do número de vagas nas universidades do país, as discussões sobre a escrita e a leitura dos discentes no ensino superior ganharam certa visibilidade. Não é pouco comum ouvir professores reclamarem que seus alunos não sabem ler e escrever. Infelizmente, tornou-se quase um senso comum a ideia de que bastaria o fato de o aluno ser aprovado em processos seletivos para que as habilidades de leitura e escrita já estivessem suficientemente desenvolvidas, como se ler e escrever fossem atividades aprendidas apenas em uma etapa pontual da escolarização. Acreditamos que as diferentes capacidades de linguagem (BRONCKART, 1999) devem ser desenvolvidas, por meio dos gêneros, não só na etapa escolar do aluno, mas, também, quando esse aprendiz está no ensino superior, diante do desafio de usar adequadamente determinados gêneros que são fundamentais para a sua vida acadêmica, mas que, na verdade, não lhe são familiares ou nunca foram objeto de estudos antes. Nessa perspectiva, o objetivo central deste trabalho, inserido no campo da Linguística Aplicada, é investigar a natureza das dificuldades apresentadas pelos alunos de uma faculdade particular no processo de escrita da monografia como trabalho de conclusão do curso de Pedagogia. Para cumprir esse objetivo, realizamos uma pesquisa qualitativa interpretativista de cunho etnográfico (ERICKSON, 2003; ANDRÉ, 2008). Como objetivos subjacentes, temos: a) identificar as dimensões escondidas no processo de construção da monografia; b) verificar como é feita a inserção de vozes e do ponto de vista na monografia; c) discutir as relações de poder presentes na escrita desse gênero em uma dada comunidade discursiva. O embasamento teórico apoia-se nos pressupostos do grupo de Novos Estudos de Letramento (STREET, 2003, 2007, 2010; LILLIS; SCOTT, 2008) e sua vertente teórica conhecida como Letramentos Acadêmicos (LEA, 2006; LILLIS, 1999; LEA, STREET, 2014; IVANIC, 1998), que compreende o letramento não meramente como uma habilidade técnica e neutra, mas uma prática de cunho social, sempre envolta em princípios epistemológicos socialmente construídos. Também, adotamos a perspectiva dialógica de linguagem de Bakhtin (2010) ao defendermos a relevância da dimensão social do gênero. O Interacionismo Sociodiscursivo (BRONCKART, 2009), por meio de seu viés didático, contribui com o conceito de capacidades de linguagem na proposta de construção de uma definição do gênero monografia (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004, CRISTOVÃO; STUTZ, 2011). Com a coleta de dados (gravação em áudio), que foi realizada durante as aulas da disciplina Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso, buscamos encontrar categorias que mapeassem as dificuldades dos alunos em relação ao gênero pesquisado. Além disso, analisamos partes de uma das monografias e entrevistamos alunos e professores de modo a triangular melhor os dados. Os resultados sinalizam que as dificuldades no processo de produção estão mais relacionadas aos aspectos sociodiscursivos (por exemplo, falta de apropriação de elementos relativos à pesquisa, relações de poder na Academia, processo de construção de identidade por meio da escrita) do que propriamente linguísticos e textuais (como questões formais e organização do plano global do texto). / With the rise in the number of vacancies in Brazilian universities, discussions about students‟ reading and writing skills in higher education seem to gain visibility. It is common to perceive teachers complain about students who do not know how to read and write. Unfortunately, it almost has become common sense the idea that students‟ approval in exams would suffice as far as the development of their skills is concerned, as if reading and writing were learned in just one step of schooling. We believe that different language capabilities (BRONCKART, 1999) should be developed through genres, not just in schooling period, but also when the learner is in higher education facing the challenge of using certain genres accordingly, which is imperative for his academic life. Such genres are actually unfamiliar or have never been studied. From this perspective, our main goal is to investigate the nature of writing difficulties experienced by students who go to a private university, upon producing a monograph as an end-of-course Pedagogy paper. For this, we conducted qualitative, interpretive, and ethnographic research (ERICKSON, 2003; ANDRÉ, 2008). As subgoals, we intend to: a) identify hidden dimensions in a monograph‟s writing process; b) investigate how the insertion of voices and point of view is performed in the monograph; c) discuss power relations found in the production of this genre in a given discursive community. Our theoretical basis is supported by the New Literacy Studies (STREET, 2003, 2007, 2010; LILLIS; SCOTT, 2008) and by its Academic Literacies (LEA, 2006; LILLIS, 1999; LEA, STREET, 2014; IVANIC, 1998), which encompasses literacy not as merely a technical and neutral ability, but as a social practice, always involved by socially constructed epistemological principles. We, too, adopted the dialogical perspective of language (BAKHTIN, 2010), upon defending the social dimension of text genres. The Sociodiscursive Interactionism‟s contribution (BRONCKART, 2009), through its didactic vein, concerns the concept of language capacities in the proposal of a definition of the genre monograph (SCHNEUWLY; DOLZ, 2004, CRISTOVÃO; STUTZ, 2011). After data collection (audio recordings), done in classes of a discipline named “End-of-course Paper”, we sought for categories that mapped students‟ difficulties as far as the genre monograph is concerned. Besides that, we analyzed sections of those monograps and interviewed students and professors in order to triangulate data. The results have signaled that the difficulties in the production process are more related to sociodiscursive aspects (e. g. lack of appropriation of elements concerning research, power relations in the academia, identity building through writing) than to, strictly speaking, linguistic and textual matters (e.g. in regards to form and to overall textual organization).

The need to prepare science teachers in South Africa to respond to a heterogenous language and literacies context where multilingualism is the norm and where school conditions may shift rapidly is urgent. However, students arrive at university with varying resources and some, due to historical inequality, may not be able to meet the academic literacies demands of the university courses for which they register, and are often institutionally described as “at risk” or underprepared. Drawing on academic literacies and decoloniality theorising, this study examines the apprenticeship into the coloniality of schooling for African language speaking students locating deficit, not in the students but in the lingering colonial ideologies of language and literacy in the schooling and higher education systems. The research uses a qualitative approach and is a case study in the form of a participant intervention that addresses the academic and multiliteracies challenges faced by five African language speakers registered for a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in science education at an elite English medium university in South Africa. I also consider whether taking a decolonial approach to academic literacies could expand the students' repertoires of practice and their production of texts in the PGCE programme. In addition, I investigate the participants' early experiences of coloniality in education; the academic and multimodal practices needed by student teachers; how African languages could be used as a resource for learning; and the role spaces outside of the university campus played in developing students' identities as science teachers and in their construction of multimodal repertoires. The theoretical framework draws on decolonial theory (Mignolo 2007; Quijano 2007; Ngugi wa ‘Thiongo 1986) and a social practices approach to academic literacies (Street 1985; Lillis 2001; New Literacy Studies 1993 and the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies; and multimodality e.g. New London Group 2000). The research findings show how African language speaking students' learning and literacies experiences from school to university continue to be shaped by coloniality, specifically the use of English as the language of instruction. Additional findings consider the specific knowledge and experiences student teachers require to successfully navigate university courses and professional practice; and what practices the demystification of academic literacies knowledge entails in a teacher education course. Taking a decolonial approach to academic literacies repositioned the students as capable and demonstrated that the problem lay not with the students, but with the system specifically under-resourced educational practices such as multimodal learning and academic literacies and continuing colonial ideologies of language and literacy.

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Secondary educators must be knowledgeable in their content while increasing the academic literacy of their students, a process further complicated when working with students who are long-term English learners (LTELs). This mixed-methods study explored the knowledge, practices, and perceptions of six secondary teachers working to develop the academic literacy of LTEL students in content-specific classrooms. Set within a sociocultural framework, the study provides a greater understanding of the challenges and successes educators experience when working at the secondary level with students with diverse learning needs. The data were collected in two phases. Phase I included a quantitative survey of teachers, designed to acquire demographic information from participants who met the inclusion criteria: educators who taught a content-specific course and had a minimum population of 10.7% LTEL students in at least one of their classes. These data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Phase II consisted of qualitative one-on-one interviews, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews. Data analysis for Phase II included transcribing the interviews and taking notes on emerging themes. Qualitative data were also provided by the classroom observations using the Observation Protocol for Academic Literacies. Notes created in each of the classrooms were coded by themes and used in the creation of profiles for each educator. Themes that emerged through the one-on-one interviews and classroom observations were used to create questions for the follow-up interviews. Findings add to the body of research regarding content-specific secondary teachers’ knowledge and perceptions about the academic literacy development of their LTELs.

A crescente internacionalização do ensino superior (MOROSINI, 2006) tem feito com que tanto instituições financiadoras quanto universidades pressionem pesquisadores a publicarem internacionalmente (MUELLER, 2000). Visando a aumentar a visibilidade da pesquisa local dentro do cenário acadêmico internacional (FLOWERDEW, 1999), a publicação em periódicos com alto fator de impacto geralmente ocorre em inglês, a língua franca das ciências (HÜLMBAUER et al., 2008). Entretanto, publicar em inglês, que desafia pesquisadores não nativos de inglês em geral (OLIVEIRA, ZUCOLOTTO E ALUÍSIO, 2006), é ainda mais desafiador para neófitos com pouco domínio daquela língua. Apesar de bastante estudadas no exterior, tanto do ponto de vista discente (LEKI E CARSON, 1994; CABRAL E TAVARES, 2005; LAVELLE E BUSHROW, 2007; ENE, 2014) quanto do docente (ENGLISH, 1999; PEDRA E NOCITO, 2012; CARRIÓ-PASTOR E MESTRE-MESTRE, 2014; DAVOUDI, NAFCHI E MALLAHI, 2015) ou de ambos (CASANAVE e HUBBARD, 1992; BITCHE-NER E BASTURKMEN, 2006; DONOHUE E ERLING, 2012), no Brasil, nunca foi feito um estudo que reunisse as principais dificuldades de pós-graduandos com a escrita acadêmica em inglês. Com o intuito de contribuir para o melhor conhecimento da complexidade do esforço de inserção de pesquisadores iniciantes na comunidade acadêmica global via publicação internacional, esta pesquisa de mestrado objetivou conhecer as dificuldades de pós-graduandos de uma universidade pública brasileira com a escrita acadêmica em inglês tanto na percepção discente quanto na docente e averiguar se haveria convergências ou divergências naquelas percepções. Dois questionários foram confeccionados e aplicados eletronicamente, angariando 385 participações (303 pós-graduandos e 82 professores). As análises quantitativa e qualitativa dos dados mostraram convergência nas percepções das duas maiores dificuldades de pós-graduandos (escrever um texto que soe natural em inglês e usar preposições adequadamente). Os dados não só revelaram uma crença predominantemente alinhada com uma visão tradicionalista do ensino da escrita em inglês (FERREIRA, 2007), mas também indicaram que as percepções de pós-graduandos sobre suas próprias deficiências com a escrita em inglês não eram claras. O conhecimento das dificuldades específicas de pós-graduandos com o inglês acadêmico escrito possibilitará o alinhamento das percepções de discentes e docentes, contribuindo assim para melhor orientar futuras iniciativas pedagógicas e institucionais que beneficiem tanto pós-graduandos quanto professores. / The growing internationalization of higher education (MOROSINI, 2006) has caused funding agencies and universities to put pressure on researchers to publish internationally (MUELLER, 2000). In order to increase the visibility of local research within the international academic context (FLOWERDEW, 1999), publication in high-impact factor journals usually occurs in English, the lingua franca of science (HÜLMBAUER et al., 2008). However, publishing in English challenges most non-native English speaking researchers (OLIVEIRA et al., 2006), especially junior researchers with little mastery of English. Although graduate students main difficulties have been regularly studied abroad, either from their own perspective (LEKI & CARSON, 1994; CABRAL & TAVARES, 2005; LAVELLE & BUSHROW, 2007; ENE, 2014), from their professors (ENGLISH, 1999; PEDRA & NOCITO, 2012; CARRIÓ-PASTOR & MESTRE-MESTRE, 2014; DAVOUDI, NAFCHI & MALLAHI, 2015) or from both (CASANAVE & HUBBARD, 1992; BITCHENER & BASTURKMEN, 2006; DONOHUE & ERLING, 2012), in Brazil those students perceptions of their difficulties with academic English writing had never been gathered in one single investigation before. Hoping to cast light on the complex effort involved in junior researchers indictment into global academia through international publication, this research aimed at uncovering the difficulties graduate students in a Brazilian public university face with academic writing in English. Students and professors perceptions of the formers difficulties were investigated and then compared in order to reveal points of convergence or divergence. Two questionnaires were designed and applied, yielding 385 participants (303 graduate students and 82 professors). One of the main findings of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis is that students and teachers perceptions converge regarding the students main difficulties with writing in English: writing texts that would sound natural in English and using prepositions adequately. The data not only revealed a predominant belief in the traditional teaching of English and of writing (FERREIRA, 2007), but they also indicated that students perceptions of their own writing difficulties in English were unclear. The knowledge of specific challenges to graduate writing in English will facilitate the alignment of students and professors perceptions, thus contributing to inform future pedagogical and institutional initiatives benefitting both staff and students.